Memories: My Kingdom

Chapter 11: Something Strange

However, Mhir is far from Tinum, so she can’t clearly see whose name was on Tinum’s nape. As she observed, Tinum seemed to be unaware of it. So he doesn’t know about this pact on their race? She thought as she watched Leui and Tinum playing a pull-and-pull game using Tinum’s cloak.

“Hmm?” Mhir muttered when her eyes caught sight of something behind the trees. “What is that?” she asked.

Leui and Tinum stopped what they were doing when they heard Mhir’s voice. “Mhir? What’s wrong?” Leui asked as he turned to Mhir, but his hand didn’t loosen from gripping Tinum’s cloak.

Tinum saw Leui’s attention was on Mhir and tried to pull his cloak. But, he failed. He sighed and watched the two.

Mhir turned to Leui and pointed to the tree she noticed earlier. “There. I saw something.” She answered.

Leui and Tinu turned to the tree Mhir was pointing at. However, they didn’t see anything strange with it. Actually, they just noticed. The trees around them looked identical – up to the position of the vines and the number of leaves. Even the number of the flowers’ petals and the stalks of grasses are equally distributed.

“Are we inside an illusion?” Leui asked. He had read too many novels to guess their current situation.

Tinum just calmly looked around while Mhir shifted on her feet, her expression showing discomfort. She subconsciously moved towards Leui and hid on his back. “I don’t feel good, Leui.” She told him as she clutched the back of Leui’s clothes tightly.

Leui is afraid that just one little movement from him and he’ll have a large hole on the back of his clothes. Thus, he remained still as he opened his mouth to speak. “How did you end up in this place earlier?” he asked as he looked around, but he still saw the same scenery.

“I don’t know.” Mhir answered. “After you fell asleep, I felt sleepy and also slept beside you.” She explained. “When I woke up, I saw you.” She finished.

Leui sighed. It’s as he guessed. Mhir wouldn’t leave on her own, alone. Thus, she was brought here without her consent. Was it a beast? He thought as he narrowed his eyes and observed if there would be some movements behind the tree. “Earlier, you said you saw something… what is it?” he asked and looked in the direction where Mhir pointed. However, he didn’t see anything.

Despite the growing panic and fear Mhir felt at the moment, that didn’t let her forget what she had seen earlier. “I saw something glowing behind the tree.” She answered.

“Could it be a firefly?” Leui said.

Mhir shook her head. “The Cold Fire Insects inside the Elven Forest are constantly in motion.” She explained.

Leui fell silent. He also heard about these insects. The Cold Fire Insects are insects that accidentally entered a forbidden area and were punished. When they went out of the place, they were carrying a fire in their body that was very hot, but looked extremely cold. Thus, they were called the Cold Fire Insects. They can never stop in place or land on something, or else they will burn their body or burn something.

So this is what the fireflies were called in this world? Leui though, never realizing they were actually referring to the fireflies he knew. He looked around and watched as the silvery fireflies cautiously float around them. “Could it be a bioluminescent organism?” he muttered, then glanced at the silent Tinum who looked like he’s just a passerby with his indifferent expression as if what’s happening around him doesn’t affect him.

When Mhir heard what Leui said, she gasped. “Could it be the Seven-Colored Glowing Leaves?” she asked, her eyes sparkling.

Leui knew this, too. When he was working in the Stinky Flower Shop, the owner handed him a book about plants. Usually, Leui wouldn’t read but since he was now living in this magical world, he was forced to know as much as he could about this world. Who knows, he might meet danger and doesn’t recognize it.

The Seven-Colored Glowing Leaves are a type of vine that has leaves shining in seven colors. Its color reflects the color of the light shone on it. It is its survival characteristic. However, there is another characteristic it possesses – and an aggressive one.

“Dizzy Spell.” Tinum muttered when he saw the sign of realization on Leui’s face.

The Seven-Colored Glowing Leaves, whoever would see it, would be blinded and then become dizzy, inducing hallucinations in the person’s mind – especially bringing out their fear. However, blindness affects more during the day since more light is reflected by the plant. At night, its lethality lessened. Thus, right now, they are only hit by its dizzy spell effect and see an illusion of the surroundings looking the same wherever they look.

Despite its name, though, the dizzy spell only took for a second before it conquers your mind with hallucinations.

“So what we see is only what our mind perceives?” Mhir asked as she held her head.

Leui nodded. “Yes.” He answered.

“How long until this ends?” Mhir asked. She knows Leui must have studied about the Seven-Colored Glowing Leaves in the Stinky Flower Shop.

“A few more minutes.” Leui answered and subconsciously looked at his wrist. Then, he frowned. Habits really die hard. He always looks at his wristwatch whenever he wanted to confirm the time.

To cover up his mistake, Leui looked at the map. After they would pass the forest, they would be passing by a river before they reached the Heiruche Kingdom. The giant river snaked around the kingdom where all humans live. Loheiruchel really had spent much thought building a future defense for the human race. Wherever direction you come from, you have to cross the river to get to the kingdom.

“Wah!” Mhir exclaimed after she regained her sight. She looked around and saw they were standing near a swamp. When Mhir looked at the swamp, she felt a shiver run down her spine and she hid on Leui’s back again. “The Corroding Swamp!” she exclaimed and looked at the dried up trees and dead leaves. On their back, the Seven-Colored Glowing Leaves are snaked around a dry branch. Its leaves threateningly starting to glow again. Mhir immediately looked away. Just a few more steps and they’ll reach the swamp and die!